Supreme Court Confirms 3-Year Prison Sentence for Former Sookmyung Girls' High School Vice Principal Over 'Twin Daughters Exam Leak' Case

The police conducted a search and seizure on the 5th at Sookmyung Girls' High School in Gangnam-gu, Seoul, and the former head of the school's academic affairs department's residence, who are suspected of leaking exam questions after twin sisters simultaneously ranked first in the entire school. The photo shows Sookmyung Girls' High School on that day. Photo by Moon Honam munonam@

[Asia Economy Reporter Song Seung-yoon] The Supreme Court has upheld the guilty verdict against the former head of academic affairs at Sookmyung Girls' High School, who was accused of leaking exam questions and answers to her twin daughters.

The Supreme Court's Second Division (Presiding Justice Noh Jung-hee) announced on the 12th that it confirmed the lower court's ruling sentencing Hyun Mo (53), the former head of academic affairs at Sookmyung Girls' High School, to three years in prison on charges of obstruction of business.

The Supreme Court stated, "There is no error in the degree of proof or legal interpretation in the lower court's judgment that Hyun leaked some or all of the answers for each regular exam subject to her daughters, and that the daughters took the exams referring to the obtained answer sheets."

Previously, Hyun was indicted on charges of leaking answers to regular school exams five times from the first semester final exams of the first year in 2017 to the first semester final exams of the second year last year, to her twin daughters who were students at the same school. Among the twins, the elder sister's overall rank in the first semester of the first year was outside the top 100, but she rose to 5th place in the second semester and 1st place in the humanities track in the first semester of the second year. The younger sister was ranked outside the top 50 in the first semester of the first year, then 2nd place in the second semester, and 1st place in the natural sciences track in the first semester of the second year.

[Image source=Yonhap News]

Hyun and her two daughters have denied most of the charges during the investigation and trial, claiming that their grades improved due to hard study.

The first trial court recognized all the allegations that Hyun leaked exam questions and answers and sentenced her to three years and six months in prison.

The second trial court also upheld the guilty verdict. At that time, the second trial court stated, "A teacher, who should be trusted by students more than anyone else, committed an act that wasted the efforts of many students for the sake of her two daughters, which is a very serious offense," and added, "The public's trust in the entire education system of our country has declined, causing significant damage."

However, considering that Hyun's wife supports three children and an elderly mother, and that the two daughters are also facing criminal trials due to the charges, the court reduced the sentence by six months from the first trial and sentenced her to three years in prison.

The twin daughters were initially under juvenile protection trials at the Seoul Family Court but denied the charges, causing the case to be returned to the prosecution. The prosecution indicted the sisters without detention on charges of obstruction of business, and a formal trial is currently underway at the Seoul Central District Court.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.